In a typical AC-type surface-discharge alternating-current plasma display panel, a front substrate made of glass where scan electrodes and sustain electrodes for performing a surface discharge are arranged and a rear substrate made of glass where data electrodes are arranged are disposed so that the former and latter electrodes are arranged opposite each other in parallel to form a matrix with a discharge space between, and the outer periphery is sealed by sealing material such as glass frit. Discharge cells sectioned by barrier ribs are provided between the substrates and a phosphor layer is formed on the discharge cells between these barrier ribs. In the thus-constituted plasma display panel, gas discharges an ultraviolet light and this ultraviolet light excites Red, Green, and Blue phosphors, hence carrying out color display (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-195990).
In this plasma display panel, one field is divided into a plurality of sub-fields and gradation is displayed by driving a combination of the light emitting sub-fields. Each sub-field comprises a reset period, an address period, and a sustain period. In order to display image data, the signal waveforms respectively different in the reset period, the address period, and the sustain period are applied to the respective electrodes.
In the reset period, for example, a positive pulse voltage is applied to all the scan electrodes, and a necessary wall charge is accumulated on the protective film and the phosphor layer on a dielectric layer covering the scan electrode and the sustain electrode.
In the address period, all the scan electrodes are scanned by sequentially applying a negative scan pulse there, and in the case where there is display data, when a positive data pulse is applied to the data electrode during the scan of the scan electrodes, a discharge occurs between the scan electrode and the data electrode and a wall charge is formed on the surface of the protective film on the scan electrode.
In the next sustain period, a voltage enough to support a discharge between the scan electrode and the sustain electrode is applied for a predetermined period. Through this measure, a plasma discharge is generated between the scan electrode and the sustain electrode, and the phosphor layer is excited to emit light for the predetermined period. In the discharge space where the data pulses were not applied during the address period, no discharge occurs, and excitation and light-emission of the phosphor layer does not occur.
In the thus configured plasma display panel, there has been a problem that writing operation is made unstable because of a large discharge time lag in the discharge during the address period or else too much time is taken for the address period because the writing time is set longer in order to completely perform the writing operation. In order to solve the above problem, there has been proposed a panel in which an auxiliary discharge electrode is provided on the front substrate, and the auxiliary discharge within the surface of the front substrate generates a priming discharge which decreases the discharge time lag, and a driving method for this panel (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-297091).
In this plasma display panel, however, there arises the problem that when the number of lines is increased as screen resolution becomes finer, the address time must be made longer, and accordingly it is necessary to decrease the time for the sustain period, and it is difficult to obtain brightness. Further, also in the case of increasing the partial pressure of xenon in order to increase the brightness and efficiency, there is the problem that the discharge starting voltage increases and discharge time lag is increased, hence to deteriorate the address characteristic. Since the address characteristics are much affected by the manufacturing process, it is necessary to decrease the discharge time lag during addressing to shorten the address time and lessen the effects of random production disuniformities.
With respect to this request, the conventional plasma display panel performing the priming discharge within the front substrate has a problem of failing to shorten the discharge time lag fully during writing, there is the problem that there is a tendency for wrong discharge in some panels because the margin of error for the auxiliary discharge is small, and further the problem that crosstalk is generated as the result of supplying more priming particles than is necessary for priming to adjacent discharge cells. A certain distance between the electrodes is necessary in order to realize the stable auxiliary discharge for supplying the priming particles. Therefore, the auxiliary discharge cell becomes larger to accommodate the auxiliary discharge within the front substrate, and a finer resolution panel cannot be achieved.